Tag Archives: Substantial Period

Word is Jeff Wilpon wants to act aggressively when it comes to hiring a top notch baseball executive to turn around his listless franchise.

WILPON: Not looking so happy.

Good.

After last year’s dismal showing, Wilpon retained GM Omar Minaya and manager Jerry Manuel, but said both had been put on notice and will be held accountable. Well, after last night’s loss, the Mets are guaranteed of finishing with a losing record. Their record will be better than last year’s, but not by much.

It’s time to be accountable.

You can blame injuries all you want, but other teams have them, too. The Phillies, for instance, lost both Chase Utley and Ryan Howard for a substantial period, but patched to replace them. They also acted aggressively last offseason by getting Roy Halladay and Roy Oswalt at the deadline.

Meanwhile, the Mets, who were within a handful of games behind Atlanta, did nothing at the break. Then collapsed with the return of Carlos Beltran. The end of the season can’t come soon enough.

The decisions by both contributed to a season that became irrelevant in July and showed limited cause for optimism in the second half. With a choking payroll for next season and an apparent desire by ownership not to spend much more, there is not much hope for 2011.

The team needs a change. It needs Jeff and Fred Wilpon to show a blueprint for reconstruction, and it needs to be unveiled quickly as the players are cleaning out their lockers. Don’t string along Minaya and Manuel, not to mention a disgruntled and shrinking fan base, next week.

By now, Jeff Wilpon should have done all his homework and knows who he wants. There should be no procrastination. He must act decisively and act soon.

He needs to do something to have people thinking and caring about his team again.